Five years of Unoffice Hours

I’ve offered Unoffice Hours for a little over five years. I’m often asked about the experience of running them, and what I get from it.

The short answer is: it’s overwhelming been a positive experience.

Someone I was chatting to in a call recently suggested I write up the experience, so here are some highlights:

• It’s been the perfect excuse and opportunity to speak with people I’d only interacted with online. Some people have gone on to book regular-ish catchups, which has been awesome. This has led to new friendships and strengthened existing relationships.
• Having a standing link where people can book a time without checking on availability removes a lot of the friction in arranging a call. It’s also a simple thing to point to if you’re having a good email exchange with someone, and think they might want to discuss it on a call.
• I cannot stress enough how much these calls aren’t about generating work. But running these for such a long time has inadvertently led to project and podcast opportunities. It’s also introduced me to people who I can recommend or see myself collaborating with in future. As someone whose business relies on my network, this has been an unintended but welcome side effect.
• In Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport talks about prioritising high quality social interactions (real conversations) over low quality (social media comments, reactions). It feels to me that these conversations firmly sit in the “high quality” box. I’ve been completely free of social media since 2023 and don’t miss it, but these calls also fill that space in a quasi-related way.

The format of Unoffice Hours also makes them perfect for introverts. On the face of it, opening a regular calendar slot for people to book might seem daunting. In practice, people booking calls almost always have something specific they want to discuss.

I’m fully aware that I am part of a demographic at the lowest risk of a bad experience with something like this. But almost everyone who books a call is already known, or familiar, to me in some way. I’ve usually either come across them on social media, exchanged emails with them or we’re both in a Slack/Discord/Circle community. If none of those apply, there’s usually something in the call booking form that shows there’s common ground and a topic we can discuss.

There’s a self-selecting element to someone booking a call that reduces the chance of an awkward or poor exchange. It’s not zero risk, but there’s some mitigation.

Getting started

Over the years, I’ve tweaked various aspects of my set up. If I was starting an Unoffice Hours today, here are some things I’d recommend:

Scheduling

I schedule my calls during times when I’m usually least productive: afternoons. Your mileage may vary, but I find it easier to keep slots open during times when I’m under less pressure to do paid work.

You probably want to establish regular time slots, but don’t feel committed to your initial schedule: it’s fine to adjust it over time. I used to offer two slots every week, but I’ve found my perfect cadence is one call every fortnight.

Crucially, having only one call booked limits the impact of a no-show or last minute cancellation. These aren’t super common, but I noticed that if the first of two calls cancelled, my brain would enter “waiting mode” and I wouldn’t be able to do anything useful in the 45 minutes I was left waiting.

I even paused bookings for six months due to personal circumstances. All of these changes have been fine.

Practicalities

Using calendar software like SavvyCal, Calendly or Fantastical’s Openings feature simplifies the booking side of things immensely. Whatever you use, I’d highly recommend:

1. Enabling reminders for meetings (at least an hour or two before)
2. Asking people what they’d like to discuss on the booking form – almost everyone fills this in and it can be really handy to get a heads-up on this before speaking

If you have a website where you can add a page for the Unoffice Hours calls, I’d also suggest using that to:

• Explain what the calls are and general availability
• Set expectations (e.g. “Please be prompt – I’ll only hang around for five minutes after the meeting starts”)
• Remind people about things you might discuss
• Add links to join the Unoffice Hours webring, if you wish

And that’s just about it. Feel free to reach out with questions by email or, even better, book an Unoffice Hours call.